Introduction Audio

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About Vietnam

Vietnam is a tiny country in Asia, east of India and directly south of China. In fact, for many years, Vietnam was controlled by China until the 19th Century (1887), when it became a colony of France known as French Indochina.

At the end of World War II Vietnam declared its independence. France was not too happy about this and continued to struggle for control of the country until 1954, when Ho Chi Minh's forces defeated the French army.

Vietnam is only 16º00´ north of the equator (see map). That means it is quite hot in most of the country - hot and humid. Temperatures in Ho Chi Minh City (formerly known as Saigon - in the far south). For instance, on August 18, 2006, the temperature was 28º Celsius (convert to Fahrenheit here) and the humidity was 84%. That isn't really horrible - nor is it much different than the U.S. south or the midwest.

Time is also something to consider. Vietnam is in the timezone UTC+7 (also known as GMT+7) - that is a complicated way of saying that Vietnam is seven hours ahead of the Greenwich Mean Time. They have no daylight savings time.

In simpler terms, when it is 4:30 PM in California, it is 6:30 AM in Vietnam. And when it is 7:30 PM in New York, it is 6:30 AM in Vietnam.

Vietnam is smaller than California and slightly larger than New Mexico. Compare the size of California to the size of Vietnam - which is 128,000 square miles.
Map courtesy of WorldAtlas.com
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